20.11.17 England teens ready to take on Europe's best in Czech Republic

A nine-strong contingent will hope to take England to the top of the podium in the Czech Republic as they compete at the European U17 Team Championships.

Seeded second, England face Portugal, Moldova and Israel in Group 2, hoping to make it to the knockout stages and into Saturday’s final.

Denmark enter the competition as the top seeds, with France and Turkey in the third-fourth seeded positions, while the home side, Scotland, Germany and Russia make up the final four seeds.

Having won the event last year, Denmark will be hopeful of maintaining their position at the top of the podium, while England will be looking to go one further than in 2016.

Following hot on the heels of the team event is the individual championships, with the same nine players in action.

Beginning the day the team events draws to a close, England’s players will hope not to be in action simply on day one – instead preferring to be fighting it out for the team medals.

But when they do finally get underway, top seeds Rory Easton and Hope Warner begin their mixed doubles campaign against Switzerland’s Nicolas Gerber and Julie Franconville.

While 14th seeds David Hong and Asmita Chaudhari take on Ireland’s Mark Kinnerk and Niamh Gannon in the same discipline, and 13th seeds Ethan van Leeuwen and Annie Lado play Sweden’s Gustav Bjorkler and Edith Urell.

In the singles events Abbygael Harris play’s Bulgaria’s Tanya Petkova, while Pamela Reyes has a bye into the second round and 12th-seeded Harry Huang plays Daniel O’Meara in the men’s competition.

The remaining doubles events see Harris and Hope Warner take on Czech eighth seeds Lucie Krpatova and Katerina Zuzakova, while Chaudhari and Lado play Israel’s Heli Neiman and Yuval Pugach.

And in the men’s doubles it’s a Ukrainian adventure as Easton and Huang play Bogdan Deremeshko and Igor Kalinichenko, while Hong and van Leeuwen face off against Volodymyr Rozhkov and Danylo Shevchenko.